5. Help presenters and audience feel that the
session was worth the time they invested in it.

Before the Session

Meeting Policies

Ultimately, chairs are the first line in enforcing annual meeting policies; please review them at http://www.afsnet.org/?page=AMpolicies. We recommend direct, timely intervention whenever possible, but you can also seek help from the registration desk staff or conference organizers (contact information will be provided in the program material at the meeting). If you become aware of imminent safety issues, immediately contact hotel security by dialing ‘0’ at a hotel phone, or police by dialing 911, then contact the registration desk staff or conference organizers.

Social Media

Increasingly, audience members may be presumed to have the means of recording conference presentations in their pockets, whether audio or videotaping speakers or photographing slides. Such recordings may serve educational purposes, allowing listeners to be more accurate and thorough in quoting or attributing ideas to their authors. We recommend that panelists consider, in advance, how they will respond to this development if it arises.

Our policy states that audience members may not use any visual or audio recording devices to record presentations without the express approval of the presenter. We recommend that you ask your panelists before the session begins whether or not they object to being recorded; if they do, make that announcement before the session and/or when those presenters begin to speak, especially since new audience members may come in mid-session.

If you see someone recording without permission, ask them to stop. Whenever possible, approach the person in question directly and quietly without interrupting the presentation. Assume, for starters, that violations of the policy are due to ignorance.

Audiovisual Equipment

AFS will provide, in every meeting room, the
following equipment ONLY: an LCD projector, a screen, a remote control, and
cabling for recent PCs and Macs.

AFS will also provide sound systems in the larger
meeting rooms. Some rooms are small
enough not to require sound systems. AFS takes care to assign those who request audio to appropriate rooms.

It has always been AFS policy NOT to provide
computers for presentations. Presenters using AV materials will need to provide
a laptop, or bring their AV materials on another device, such as an iPod, that
does not require a laptop and can connect directly to the projector. In many
cases, these arrangements are best worked out at the session level. We strongly
encourage you to:

a. Contact your panelists about their audio-visual needs NOW.

b. Make plans to consolidate all audio-visual materials for the session
that will require a laptop to one presenter’s laptop (and possibly to a backup).

c. Don't rely on internet streaming for audio or video, since bandwidth may be uncertain.

d. If at all possible, have presenters using CDs or DVDs send those
disks before the meeting to the presenter whose laptop will be used in the
session, so that they can be tested on that laptop for compatibility issues.

e. Make certain that you have a suitable adapter to hook the laptop to
the projector, particularly if you will be using a Mac.

Contact Your Speakers

Before the conference contact your speakers to ask
them if they have any questions about their presentation. Make sure your
speakers know the date, time, and place of their presentation. Confirm that
they have brought any special requirements to the attention of the conference
organizers. Ask them to give you a short biography with the relevant background
material so that you can introduce them properly. Find out how they feel about being recorded. We also suggest that you
encourage your presenters to share copies of their papers with one another
before the meeting. If you don't have contact information for each member of the panel, contact Associate Director Lorraine Walsh Cashman at lcashman@indiana.edu.

Be Prepared

As chair, you should be familiar with the topic of
the session in general, and with the content of the presentations in particular.
Although the overall time allocation and the order of the speakers have already
been defined in the annual meeting program book, it is very helpful to spend
some time planning the format of the session; e.g., creating a general
introduction to the session and of each speaker.

Meet Your Speakers

If at all possible, and especially if you do not
know them, please arrange to meet your speakers early in the conference.

During the Session

Introducing the Session

Effective session chairs most often begin by
making contact with the audience to get everyone's attention and to introduce
the audience to the topic(s) that will be addressed in the session. Don't
assume that everyone is familiar with the topic already. The chair’s opening
remarks should not devolve into an unscheduled invited talk, but should simply
introduce the framework for the following speakers. This is also a good
opportunity to present the format of the session; for example, that—following current
AFS practice—questions will be taken after each presentation rather than at the
end of the session.

If any of your panelists prefer not to be recorded, announce this at the beginning of the session and/or when those speakers begin their presentations.

Introducing the Speakers

Introductions help create the audience’s first
impressions about a speaker and can make them more interested in hearing what
she has to say. This is particularly true if the speaker is relatively unknown
(someone from another field, a newcomer to the AFS meeting, a student). Be
accurate and respectful in your introduction. If you know the presenter and
have something nice to say about her, say it. Tell the audience something about
the presenter’s expertise, interests, or accomplishments. These things will
help establish speakers’ credibility with the audience, and make the session
more enjoyable to both the audience and presenter alike. You can do this best
if you have gathered the relevant biographical information prior to the
conference.

Immediately prior to session, confirm with each
speaker the accuracy of the information you will be using to introduce them and
the correct pronunciation of their names. Ask if they prefer to be introduced
using their formal name or by a familiar name (e.g., Deborah or Deb, Samuel or
Sam). The minimum introduction to a presentation should be a mention of the
title and a few words about the speaker read from the information provided
(beware of difficulties reading hand-written notes you or they may well have
scribbled in a hurry). If the presentation has been co-authored, you should
mention the name(s) of the absent co-author(s) as well.

Time Allocation and Control

For panels (sessions comprising the
presentation of papers):

It is very important that you attempt to enforce the presentation times as they are printed in the program material; meeting participants count on that predictability when they plan their movements. Some panels have papers of different lengths; the program material has been carefully edited to reflect these differences. If you suspect an error in your panel schedule, contact us as soon as possible.

It is also very important to check the online Program Addendum before your session to see if there are any last-minute changes to your schedule. Every year, we receive notice of withdrawals after the program book is printed, sometimes in the days and hours before the meeting. For the sake of predictability, all papers are to move forward to fill gaps. AFS staff will also attempt to contact you directly in the case of withdrawals, but the online Program Addendum is the single most reliable source of information about changes for all attendees.

Most individual presentations are allotted 15 or 30 minutes, as noted in the meeting program: 15-minute slots are for 10-minute papers or diamond presentations, while 30-minute slots are for 20-minute papers; all include time for discussion immediately after the paper. Keeping speakers to this limit is
the most difficult task, since all of us tend to forget about time as soon as we
have the floor. There are numerous techniques for time control, including cue
cards with 10-, 5-, 2- and minute countdowns and a session timer, but never
rely on the speaker to have eye contact with you on a regular basis to
determine how much speaking time is left: most speakers will either look at the
audience or focus on their notes.

As a last resort, you may have to speak up and
remind the speaker that she is running out of time. If there is no sign of the
speaker drawing her presentation to a close, you should interrupt at least 2-3
minutes before her allocated speaking time is over in order to give her a
chance to wind up her presentation.

As just mentioned, we allot 15 or 30 minutes for each
paper presentation, including time for discussion immediately after each
presentation. After each presenter has concluded her paper, announce that the
floor is now open for discussion of the paper for X minutes (X is the
difference between the assigned time block and the time it took for the presenter to give
her paper).

Whenever possible, panels with short papers are allocated additional time at the end for discussion of the panel as a whole.

Diamond presentations are themselves constrained by
the necessity of keeping pace with the 21 slides that automatically advance
every 20 seconds. Be aware that the presenters will be highly conscious of
pacing themselves accordingly, but that they may need assistance with the
transition from one presenter to the next. The generic schedule for diamond
sessions allows ten minutes for each seven-minute presentation in order to
allow some time for each presenter to get situated.

Pre-organized Diamond panels may allocate time among presentations and discussion as the chair requested in the session proposal, allowing at least 10 minutes for each presentation. Panels that include individual Diamond presentations should follow the printed schedule; typically, these Diamond presentations are allotted 15 minutes.

At
the discretion of the session chair, the discussion time may be used for
response by a formal discussant (if proposed in advance), open "full room”
questions and answers, break-out time in which presenters can confer with
interested audience members, or a combination of these discussion formats.

Forums are intended to be run much more flexibly than panels, which are broken into definite periods. If you are chairing a forum, you are free to structure your two hours in whatever way you think is best for your participants, your audiences, and the subjects of your session. (It is, however, usually a good idea for you to make clear at the beginning of the session what that structure will be.) In the program book, we list forum participants in alphabetical order; you may order their oral presentations in any way you like.

Coordinating Discussion

Please ask members of the audience asking a
question to give their names and affiliations. If there are no questions (which
often is the case), you may help the speakers and the audience save face by
having one or two questions to ask, but in general, questions from the audience
should have preference. If there are too many questions or the questions are
too difficult to understand or answer, you may step in and remind the audience
of the time limit, and that such specific issues can be discussed after the
session. If time remains at the very end of the session, you may decide to
return to these questions.

Closing the Session

It is good practice for the session chair to sum
up the session after the last presentation. You may wish, for instance, to
speak a few sentences summarizing the content of the session, acknowledging all
the speakers and the audience (for their participation), and announcing the
next session, if any, on the same or a similar topic. You’ll most likely need
to be very brief here.

After the Session

There is not much for the session chair to do
after the session, but it is a good practice to thank each of the speakers before
they leave the room.

If any presenters did not show up as scheduled, notify the registration desk or email lcashman@indiana.edu

Summary: 10 Tips for Chairing a Successful Session

1. Make Contact
- Contact your speakers before the conference to work out AV arrangements, to
make sure they know when and where their presentation will take place, and to
answer any questions they may have.

2. Be Prepared
- Familiarize yourself with annual meeting policies and the general topic of the session and read abstracts
(and full papers if they are available) to familiarize yourself with the
content of the individual presentations. If you think two speakers are in
danger of covering the same issues contact them in advance to give them an
opportunity to tailor their presentations. Consolidate AV presentations on one
laptop, and bring an adapter to hook the laptop to the projector.

3. Face-to-Face
- Arrange to meet your speakers at the conference venue to ensure they know the
time and venue of their presentation, and that they bring problems or special
requirements to the attention of the conference organizers.

4. Think and Plan
- Plan the general format of your session and think about how best to introduce
the speakers.

5. Introduce Session
- Get the attention of the audience, introduce the topic of the session, and
present the format of the session.

6. Introduce the Speakers
- Prepare some information to introduce each of the speakers. Keep the
introductions short and accurate.

7. Timing
- Remember that there are only 30 minutes available for each presentation and
discussion of it, so encourage your speakers to leave enough time for
discussion at the end of their presentations. Monitor the timing of your
speakers, and be clear and forthright about keeping them to the limit.

8. Discussion
- Have a few questions ready in case the audience doesn't. If questions are too
long or complicated, interrupt and suggest that the issue is discussed after
the session.

9. Closing
- Conclude the session with a short summary of the content of the session, acknowledge
the speakers, and announce the next sessions, if any, on related topics.

10. The End
– After the session ends, thank the speakers for their contributions before
they leave the room.

--------------------------

Acknowledgments

This summary was adapted with permission from the
HEAnet National Networking Conference 2003 Guidelines for Session Chairs (www.heanet.ie/conferences/2003/guidelineschairs.htm), which in turn was based on the Trans-European
Research and Education Networking Association’s document Guideline for JENC8
Session Chairs, produced by Hannes Lubich.